Pubdate: Wed, 28 May 2014
Source: Tennessean, The (Nashville, TN)
Contact: http://www.tennessean.com/SITES/OPINION/submit-editor.shtml
Copyright: 2014 The Tennessean
Website: http://www.tennessean.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/447
Author: Froma Harrop

FIGHT HEROIN WITH MARIJUANA

A plague of heroin addiction is upon us. Another plague. Heroin was 
the crisis that prompted Richard Nixon to launch the war on drugs in 1971.

Time marched on. Cocaine and then crack cocaine and then 
methamphetamine overtook heroin as the drugs of the moment. Now 
heroin is back - and badder than ever.

The war on drugs also grinds expensively on, an estimated $1 trillion 
down the hole so far. Amid the triumphant announcements of massive 
drug seizures and arrests of the kingpins, heroin has never been more 
abundant or so easy to find, in urban and rural America alike.

Still, marijuana accounts for almost half of drug arrests, and most 
of those are for possession, not selling. This may sound 
counterintuitive, but as states ease up on the sale and use of pot, 
opportunity knocks for dealing with the heroin scourge.

"If I had to write a prescription for the heroin problem," retired 
Cincinnati police Capt. Howard Rahtz told me, "the first thing I'd do 
is legalize marijuana."

Rahtz has fought this battle on several front lines. After serving 18 
years as a law officer, he ran a methadone clinic to treat addicts. A 
member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, Rahtz won't go so far 
as the group's official position, which is to legalize all drugs.

"I would not make heroin available as a recreational drug," he said. 
"But I would make it available on a medical basis."

Rahtz sees treatment as the only promising way to truly confront the 
heroin epidemic. He recalls his days as a police captain going after 
the traffickers:

"We started getting record amounts of drugs, money and guns, and I'm 
writing memos to the chief. But then I'd ask the guys, 'Is anyone 
walking around Cincinnati unable to find drugs?'"

Because drug cartels garner 60 percent of their revenue from the 
marijuana trade, legalizing pot would smash up their business model. 
"I have zero problem with recreational marijuana," Rahtz said.

He would like Colorado and other states now taxing marijuana to 
earmark the money for drug treatment and rehabilitation. It's crazy 
that only 10 percent of heroin addicts get into treatment, according 
to federal statistics.

Why the heroin epidemic now? Much of the surge in heroin use stems 
from the recent crackdown on prescribed painkillers. Those addicted 
to pain medication went looking for an easily available alternative 
and found heroin.

(One might question the value of making it hard for those hooked on 
prescription drugs to get them. At least then, a doctor would be on 
their case.)

Today's astounding heroin death tolls reflect the reality that heroin 
sold is now 10 times more pure than it was in the '70s. Adding to the 
tragedy, tolerance levels for heroin drop for those in treatment. The 
relapse rate in drug programs is high, and those who go back are 
killed by the strength of the drug on the street.

What should be obvious is the futility of dumping all this money into 
the war on drugs while putting those wanting treatment on waiting 
lists. Even if many of those treated end up going back into the 
dungeon of drug use, their weeks or months off the drug ate into the 
dealers' profits.

Bringing heroin addicts in for treatment deprives the cartels of 
their best high-volume customers. Legalizing pot puts them out of 
their most lucrative business. Using tax revenues from the legal sale 
of marijuana to pay for treatment completes the virtuous circle.

This virtuous circle can replace the vicious circle of the drug war. 
As odd as this sounds, we can fight heroin with marijuana.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom